John W.

We have a cremant d'Loire on our list now by Yves Lambert. 100% Cab Franc, smells like it too. I find it to be utterly drinkable.

It's in the Sheraton Four Points, like 12th and K. I agree with Rocks' post. I've always thought pretty much what he said, but never really got around to posting anything. Tom's wine list is a joy to read and is really a joy to pay for.

That's insane! I must have one of these. Who sells them? funky fresh!

Another reason why this place is a force to be reckoned with? Bacon-scented air fresheners. Mr. Slipp was kind enough to give one to me as a XMAS gift. Anyone who has bacon on the brain as much as he deserves appropriate commendations.

A majority of our shift meetings involve wine of some sort, usually in a blind format. I feel this accomplishes many things. One, when a server is singled out to do a portion of the tastings (ie sight, smell or taste), that builds confidence to speak about a wine, any wine in front of a guest. Two, that enables the servers to actually know the difference between regions, ie the difference between a California chard and a white Burgundy (and as good little waiters they all prefer Burgundy), which even if they haven't tasted the wines they can look at the region and make an educated guess. I prefer this to what you get when sales reps come to do staff tastings (they tend to give the party line tasting notes right off the tech sheets, which to memorize that for 100 or so wines that change frequently is not likely). This process takes time and obviously costs a lot of money, but in the end, our wine sales YTD are up 12% on budget (we've been only open 15 months). That's pretty substantial I would say. We don't have the luxury of a sommelier, so to keep driving wine sales we have invested in our wait staff. As for by-the-glass wines, we don't have the luxury of turning the stuff over as quickly as say Mark would, so we keep that in mind when making choices. I hate when you go to a place and get a $15 glass of pinot that has been obviously opened for weeks, and the look you get when you bitch about it...We have about 15 half bottles on the list, I guess given our size and logistics is a good number. Also, in agreeance with docsconz, we've made a concious choice to increase the quality on them as people seem to pay for it.

Something about Frank Ruta's cooking amazes me. It's total lack of pretension is so impressive. After a great meal last night, I'm trying to convey my thoughts, and I just can't. Nothing was breathtakingly beautiful, or whimsical, or pained. Just upfront, honest cooking at the highest of levels, devoid of any and all bullshit. I guess the best way to phrase it is to recall Bourdain's views on Scott Bryan and Veritas in Kitchen Confidential. That's how I felt when I was leaving. For the record, we had; Lobster pot au feu and pate of partridge etc. House cured bacon and fennel sausage wrapped sea bass with clams etc Black trumpet mushroom soup with coddled duck egg and pheasant ravioli with foie gras sauce (takes the cake for letting flavors speak for themselves) Duck with Savoy cabbage and turnips and Snapper with avocado and shrimp. Cookies, lemon curd tart Drank a wonderful Barbaresco for $69 It was all about the food, but the absolute lack of pretension makes you forget exactly what it was you had. Never had that happen before. Thanks to Frank Ruta and staff for a wonderful evening.

Is that something you would want to be? Probably not an accurate portrayal, Bill, but Jarad came out last night, draped in seaweed (or was that his Gucci tie), and started singing in a haunting and monotonic voice: I am the Agar-Agar King ... I can do anything ... Jarad and Jamison are often thought of in tandem, inseparable, like Abbott and Costello, Penn and Teller, Laurel and Hardy, so carrying this to its logical conclusion, I took two individual photographs I have of them and ran them through a morphing algorithm I have on my computer, only to get the following result: http://www.elvis-costello.net/gallery/details.php?image_id=6 Fearing reprisal, Rocks. Idle hands are the Devil's work.

Also, I feel some of the onus should be on the restaurants that do have a dress code to inform their potential guests in advance to avoid embarrassing situations, which at that level of service should be a no-brainer.

I'll put my adult hat on now. To have this argument on this site is pointless, I feel most of the people on here "get it." Honestly, I tend to overdress at restaurants, and I would have probably shown up sans jacket at Le Relais. American culture as a whole is trending towards more casual attire, and as businesspeople you have to be aware of that and make your stand one way or the other.

That's the answer to this thread for me. As for the cruddy old T-shirt, I hope it doesn't happen (and it really doesn't happen much), sometimes it does. I have other things that piss me off more now. When I lived in Napa, I worked at a restaurant with an open kitchen. I used to work myself up into a lather when people would come in to dinner in shorts etc. After two years of being really annoyed at it, I became immune to it there. I'm certainly not advocating improper dress, but for some restaurants it's an argument I feel that doesn't need to happen. As for the Penn Quarter restaurant/dress codes, you better believe that the MCI center is an integral part of their business plans, T-shirts and jeans included.

Joe, On some level I agree with you but disagree with you wholeheartedly on many other levels. You have made it quite clear your position on this. A restaurant such as Citronelle, with it's history, it's chef, it's price point, it's location, it's wine list etc, demands a certain dress. And I endorse a dress code there. And I certainly adhere to it. The situation warrants it. To continue this exercise, the other places you mention: Firefly and Zaytinya/Cafe Atlantico. As the driving force behind Firefly, I could give a shit if people wear sneakers or shorts or whatever. Our prices don't command it, our neighborhood does not demand it, we are in a hotel, the list goes on. I love the fact that we can have suits sitting next to jeans and the jeans routinely outorder the suits in terms of dollars. I think that is one of the reasons we are successful. As far as Steve's kingdom is concerned, I think he would share the same views, especially as far as Zaytinya and Jaleo are concerned. Joe, if you want to come and wear a jacket and tie at Firefly, I would welcome the respect you are showing us. Believe me. But a whole lot of our clientele don't want to dress up. And we don't force them to. But if we start enforcing a dress code here, we would be 18th Street lounge within a week. And I would kill myself. Sneakers are much better than that to me in this setting. As far as Le Relais is concerned, I would be annoyed as much as Hannnah was. It appears she tried to locate a dress code, and I believe she would have respected it. To be honest with you, in a strip mall, in Great Falls, with a less than (what is it?) two-year tenure of being open, with no posted notice anywhere, why would you think to dress up? Especially if this place was sans Yannick. That strikes me of unnecessary pretentiousness. Why not post the dress code? Yannick may be a great cook, but it ain't the French Laundry. I think we share the same dislike of people not respecting restaurants deserved of a dress code, enforced or not. That's the thing for me. Deserved of a dress code. A strip mall in Great Falls would probably not have me reaching for a coat for lunch. But what do I know, I just run a little two-star joint in Dupont. And Joe, as much as we'd like your business, I guess I'll just run into you the next time I'm at the Prime Rib or some other dinosaur.

I found it to be quite beautiful.

Ow my hand!!!

The tapas place is La Tasca. Looks like a chain. Was there last week on business (went to Jaleo, Zaytinya and the aforementioned). It was ok, will serve the masses well. That's the boldest plan ever, opening a chain-type place right next to the real deal. For Chinese, next time Sara, try New Big Wong. I've been there a few times, it's pretty good.

I think Vidalia was.

Tom's review

OK. So I went to Citronelle with DonRocks. He ordered. We had a bottle of Chateau de Amouresses CDR 2001 for $35. Citronelle. $35. What's wrong with this picture? Could be the cheapest red. The home of $100+ tasting menus, and the the guy (our dear Mark Sommelier) has the cojones to put a delicious $35 bottle of Cotes du Rhone on his wine list. The stuff is out there, it just takes someone with the skills to find it. And to put words in Mark's mouth, he doesn't really care if it's $35, it's a good bottle of wine.

Nah. Any good?

SO I have to say this... Rocks and I went back to Jaleo last night. I asked him wanted to eat, he asked me what I wanted to eat, we both said at the same time PORK & SALT!!! We ate like 4 orders of bacon wrapped dates among the 20 or so plates. He estimated we had like 5,000 calories in one hour. Probably explains the extreme dehydration I'm experiencing right now. Tried to get dessert, but ran out of time.

You'll only encourage him. Rocks, you need help my man. A lot of help.

That exchange is so life-like, down to the satanic pirate description of Mikey. Rocks, I'd lay low. We are always looking for material at the office, this could be just the ticket.

Now that's comedy.

Isn't this supposed to be "now hear this, now hear this?" (-5) What exactly is a trunip? A Gale Gand root vegetable? (-5) language (-10) language (-10)Nice post Rocks. You get a 70.

One can easily guess that the women on whom you gorge yourself smoke pot (who can blame them?), but wrapping them in bacon is a bit kinky, even for your standards, no? Granted my dates as you call them must be smoked up to put up with my award-winning personality, but when they wrap themselves in thin slices of Seranno ham and/or bacon, it's over.

Went to Jaleo last night, intent on having at least one dessert, as Don's eloquent descriptions demanded it. Was like seeing an old friend after a few years (I used to do Jaleo like it was the BDC). A few new menu items, great bottle of Muga Reserva for $33, but hey this is a dessert thread. I can say I don't think I've ever had a dessert at Jaleo, as I always gorge myself on way too many orders of croquettas and bacon-wrapped fried dates. Was difficult to do, but I managed to save a little room. Had the Basque cake. Was as good or better as Rocks described it, really did it for me. Simply done and presented, an expert balance of flavors and textures. Wish I could have done more sweets, but wasn't in the cards. The Basque cake and a glass of oloroso sherry, watching the snow come down, everything was right in the world.